


Like Gold

by ishiplouis



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: (a little cuz im not the best at it), Adviser!Harry, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Coming Out, Enemies to Lovers, Hate to Love, Jealousy, M/M, Prince!Louis, Royalty AU, Sexual Tension, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 09:43:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 17,763
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12932628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ishiplouis/pseuds/ishiplouis
Summary: Harry has been an Adviser for Royal Families since he was 24. From French to Russian families, he has travelled the world and handled difficult situations. That’s, at least, what he believed until a week into his new position as Adviser for his Royal Highness Prince Louis Tomlinson.Royal AU where Harry is Prince Louis’ Adviser, and Louis is anything but helpful.





	Like Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alex4968](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex4968/gifts).



> Dear Alex4968, I hope you like the fic I came up with your Hate to Love prompt :) 
> 
> I need to thank a million times [love-and-positivity](http://positivity-and-love.tumblr.com/) and [screwstyles](http://screwstyles.tumblr.com) for betaing this work, Thank you so so much for taking the times out of your studies for looking at my words and especially for making them readable (and I hope enjoyable by everyone!). 
> 
> A special thanks too to hazzabooween for being an awesome friend and supporting me :)

**Like Gold**

 

 

_Started with a word_

_Now, look at where we are_

_Everything we've done_

_It's there on our faces for anyone willing to_

_Read between the lines_

_Now, look at where we are_

_Everything we've done_

_It's there on our faces for anyone willing to_

 

Like Gold, Vance Joy

  
  
  
  
  
  


“Where is my son?” King Albert II of England was facing Harry, an expectant look on his face.

Harry did a quick scan of the room and unfortunately for him, Louis was not present.

 

“Your Majesty, he was supposed to be here, I asked him to...” Harry started to answer, fumbling with his phone and the folder full of documents he always had under his arm when he was working.

 

“You asked him?” The King was looking at him, an expression of disbelief painted across his face. His fingers pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mr Styles, how long have you been working for us now? Two weeks, maybe three?”

 

“One week, Your Majesty.” Harry responded quickly.

 

“Alright, let me ask you a question, Mr Styles. During the week you’ve worked here, have you ever seen my son do something that you’ve asked him to do?”

 

Harry wasn’t stupid, he knew perfectly well what the King was trying to say. The sole purpose of his job was to maneuver the Prince from place to place, and have him be on time as often as possible. The Prince was difficult at his best and a real pain in the arse on his bad days. So while Harry understood what the King was implying, he didn’t particularly like being told off. The King was waiting for an answer, though, so Harry put on his best professional smile before responding.

 

“Rarely, Your Majesty.”

 

“I’ll go with never, Mr. Styles.”

 

He was definitely right, but Harry wasn’t exactly ready to admit he was failing at his job barely a week in.

 

“Go and find my son, Mr. Styles. It’s your job to make sure he does what he’s supposed to, and right now he is supposed to be joining me for a luncheon with the German ambassador.” The King stated. “Oh and, Mr. Styles,” he continued, “I’d just like to emphasise that it’s one of your main tasks to have my son follow his schedule and right now I’m not satisfied with your work.”

 

 _Fuck,_ Harry thought while bowing, before turning on his heels and heading straight to Louis’ wing of the Palace. The short walk it took to arrive at Louis’ bedroom door helped to calm his nerves and adopt a professional demeanor once again.  

 

“Your Highness,” he called, knocking twice on the door, “are you there?” He waited for ten seconds, listening carefully for any noise from the inside the room, but heard nothing. Harry was about 99% sure that the Prince was still asleep, even if it was close to noon. He was also sure that the Prince had been out the previous night, as he often was. “Your Highness, I’m coming in now.” He warned while opening the door slowly. The room was bathed in light, the curtains had not been drawn, and Harry could see various pieces of clothing scattered across the room leading towards the canopy bed. Harry’s prediction turned out to be true, because as he glanced towards the bed he could see the Prince slumped in a sea of sheets.

 

“Your Highness!” He tried louder this time. The Prince was supposed to be awake, dressed and eating lunch with his father right now, and Harry was disappointed in himself for not guessing that the Prince would not be anywhere close to ready. Since he had started a week ago, Louis had been anything but cooperative. He was a hurricane in a human body.

 

Of course, Harry had heard the rumours that behind the scenes, the Prince of England had been growing more and more difficult ever since his 18th birthday and that absolutely no one had a clue what had caused the sudden change of behaviour. The nation's darling had changed, and drastically at that. It wasn’t out of the ordinary to now find him on page 6 of The Sun in the company of the rowdiest of celebrities or have him ignore all of his formal obligations. Right now, though, Harry needed to wake him up and ask the people in charge of hair and makeup to finally come in and work their magic to make Louis presentable. Fueled by this, he strode over to the Prince’s bed and without further ado patted Louis’ shoulder heavily.

 

“Your Highness! Wake up now!” He said with his most authoritative voice. That got Louis to stir under the sheets, but only slightly.

 

“Go away.” He could hear Louis mumbling, half of his face pressed into the fluffy pillow, the other half hidden by his messy fringe.

 

“No, I’m not going. With all due respect, I need to remind you there’s a luncheon you’re supposed to be attending with your father and a foreign ambassador right now.”

 

“Shh, too much noise.” Louis was having none of it and pressed his face further into his pillow.

 

“Your Royal Highness! Your Father insists, you need to get up now.” Harry had no other choice but to remove the sheets off of Louis, which had the boy groaning about the sudden cold. To Harry’s misfortune, the Prince apparently slept butt-naked and Harry diverted his gaze quicker than he thought was humanly possible. “Prince Louis, your father is awaiting your arrival.”

 

“Shut it, I’m tired and I’m not going.” Harry could hear the annoyance in Louis’ voice. He pinched his nose, took a deep breath and dialled the number for backup. It was definitely not part of his job to forcefully remove Louis from his bed. While he was fumbling with his phone, he also sent an urgent message to the Master of the Household, who would send in someone to dress and make the Prince look like he hadn’t just rolled out of bed a mere 5 minutes ago. With the state it was in, they also needed to send someone to clean his bedroom. When Harry hung up, he was pleasantly surprised to see that Louis was no longer lying in bed, but instead shooting him glares from where he stood near his wardrobe.

 

In no time the Prince’s room was full of staff, every person doing what they needed to do and to Harry’s pleasure they worked quickly. As he felt he was no longer needed, Harry retreated from the room to allow Louis his privacy while changing.

 

Ten minutes later, the door opened again to reveal the Prince, still glaring.

 

“I’m ready. Happy?” He spat out.

 

“Very happy, indeed. Now, if you would please follow me, I’ll show you the way.” Harry responded, already walking towards the stairs.

 

“I know the way.” Louis hissed curtly before overtaking Harry and going down the stairs quickly. Harry was a little baffled by the Prince’s reaction, but let it slide as at least the Prince was somewhat behaving.

 

Leaving the Prince to his obligations, Harry went back to his own. The day was spent attending meeting after meeting, and Harry still had so much to learn about this family. Where before he thought that being an adviser to the Prince of England would be a piece of cake, there was so much he needed to catch up with now. Of course, the state his predecessor had left things in when he resigned was not helping Harry’s situation at all.

 The next time Harry looked at the clock, it was already 5pm. He knew he had to do the post-meeting debrief with Louis and go through the Prince’s future obligations in half an hour. This left him with some time for himself, so he quickly walked towards his quarters to freshen up a little and rearrange his notes. He definitely needed to be more than well-prepared for the next encounter with the Prince.

Ever since his first day working at the palace, Harry still hadn’t had one good meeting with him. They had definitely started off on the wrong foot. On his first day, Harry had the misfortune of walking in on Louis having sex with two other men, which hadn’t fazed the Prince in the slightest, but the image of Louis being simultaneously fucked by two men built like gods was definitely ingrained in Harry’s mind forever.

Since then, Louis had constantly taken advantage of Harry’s discomfort and his inability to look him in the eye, by teasing him and not listening to any of Harry’s advice. Even though Harry tried to be very professional, and always knock and wait for a bit before entering Louis’ room, Louis was now playing cat-and-mouse and he was definitely winning. At least he was yet to be the subject of one of Louis’ pranks, which were famous for their ingenuousness.

 

At 5:30pm sharp, Harry was knocking on Louis’ office door, hoping that the Prince was indeed inside and waiting for him.

 

“Your Highness?” Harry tentatively spoke through the door. From what Harry could hear or rather couldn’t hear, there was absolutely no noise from inside and Harry wasn’t ready to give in to Louis’ childish games again. Just as he was about to knock again, he was interrupted by a voice behind him.

 

“Mr Styles?” Harry would have recognised the voice anywhere, so it didn't come as a surprise to him to be faced with the King when he turned around. “I was looking for you, Mr Styles, do you have a minute for me?”

 

“Yes, Your Majesty, of course.” Harry responded, bowing his head. He followed the King quickly and found himself in one of the several tea rooms of the castle. After being prompted, he took a seat on a velvety baby pink armchair and tried his best to not to look too stressed by this impromptu meeting.

 

“So, Mr Styles, did you find my son earlier?” The King was looking at him, keeping his hands behind his back while he paced back and forth in front of Harry.

 

“Yes, I did.” Even though Harry didn’t let anything show on his face, he could feel himself getting a little tense.

 

“Oh, that’s interesting,” the King began, “do you want to know why, Mr Styles?”

 

This seemed like a rhetorical question, but Harry responded anyway.

 

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

 

“Well, Mr Styles, that’s interesting, because if you found my son like you just said, then why did I not have the pleasure of his company at my table for lunch?”

 

Oh no, this little shit! Of course Harry should have ensured that the Prince actually went to meet his father. Why had he decided to trust him in the first place? Harry was definitely getting fired. Louis should just wait until they were to meet again, Harry surely had a few words to say to him then. Unfazed, the King used his momentum and droned on about how difficult his son was being recently.

 

“Do you know why we hired you, Mr Styles?” He suddenly asked.

 

“Because you were in need of a new adviser, I suppose?”

 

“Well, yes, but not any adviser, Mr Styles, we needed the very best. And with your impressive CV, good manners and prestigious references, you were the perfect candidate.” The King held Harry’s gaze, a cold expression across his face. “But today I am wondering whether you have what it takes, Mr Styles.”

 

And there it was, his first dismissal. Harry already felt the sharp pang of disappointment, his chest tightening with it. Thanks to Louis he didn’t even get to show what he was capable of.

 

“I am very sorry, Your Majesty. I should have ensured that the Prince joined you earlier, I trusted that-”

 

“That’s where you’re mistaken.” The King interrupted him, “as horrid as it sounds, I would suggest you to never trust my son. It’s true he used to be the model child, always with the right comment on his lips and a charming smile to lighten the mood. The world was his oyster.” The King was thoughtful and Harry couldn’t help himself, he needed to know what had changed. Why the once charming and bubbly Prince was now this douche of a person.

 

“May I ask you, Your Majesty, what happened?” This seemed to startle the King from his thoughts and when he resumed talking, a sad look was clouding his features.

 

“Nobody really knows. He started to act out after his 18th birthday and since then, I haven’t been able to recognise my son anymore.”

 

 

 

***

 

Harry was gauging how to deal with Louis. The Prince was probably chilling somewhere, happy to have escaped his obligations for the day, happy to have fooled his new adviser, which made Harry all the more annoyed.

 

Harry found him chilling in his wing of the castle, slouched on one of the numerous sofas, surrounded by his two sisters, Princess Charlotte and Princess Felicité. They were all enjoying what seemed to be a horror movie, judging by the frightened looks on both of the girls’ faces.

 

Harry stayed by the threshold of the room, clearing his throat several times, but neither of the girls nor Louis reacted to his presence. Tired of trying to make his presence known subtly, he quickly strode over to the couch.

 

“Your Highness?” That visibly startled the Prince, seeing as he almost fell off the couch upon hearing Harry’s voice.

 

“What the fuck!” Louis squealed, a hand placed over his heart. His outburst was promptly followed by both girls’ disapproval over Louis swearing.

 

“I apologise, Your Highness,” Harry tried to explain, bowing his head in respect, “I tried to make my presence known several times, but I suppose you were all very focused on the movie and--”

 

“What do you want?” He was cut short by an angry looking Louis, and Harry had to remind himself to stay calm and professional once again.

 

“If I could have ten minutes of your time, Your Highness, we need to discuss some important affairs.”

 

“Come back when the movie is over,” Louis dismissed, “I don’t feel like having a meeting right now.”

 

 _That’s unfortunate, because you will have the meeting now, whether you want it or not,_ was what Harry wanted to reply with, but he didn’t want to show Louis that he was slowly losing his patience.

 

“I mean no disrespect, Your Highness, but may I remind you that we had a meeting scheduled at 5:30 pm anyway and I know I was held back by the King and couldn’t make it on time, but I believe we still have time for a quick-”

 

“What’s your name again?” Once more the Prince didn’t let him finish his sentence, which started to really annoy Harry, but he put on his best smile to respond to his boss.

 

“My name is Harry Styles, Your Highness, I am your new adviser, I believe I introduced myself when I-”

 

“Harry, Harry, Harry.” The Prince was now climbing off the couch and walking towards Harry. As he got closer and closer, Harry could see that Louis’ face was sporting a bored and weary expression. “You speak a lot, don’t you, Harry?”

 

“I apologise, Your Highness, I ..”

 

“Hush Harry, let’s establish some rules, shall we? I believe there are some things you need to understand in order to do your job effectively, because that’s what you want Harry, right?” The Prince was now so close that Harry was able to see the freckles on his face and the wrinkles by his eyes. “You want to be the employee of the month, don’t you? You want to make the King proud and leave this castle with a superb recommendation.”

 

“Your majesty, if I may speak,” Harry tried to interrupt but the Prince was having none of it.

 

“Harry, did I not tell you to be quiet? Apparently I have to make myself extra clear, so here is rule number one, are you ready, Harry?” The expectant look on Louis’ face made Harry nod quickly, completely taken aback by the Prince’s behaviour. That was definitely the most Harry had heard him speak since he started his job, and he couldn’t decipher if Louis was being angry, sassy or patronising. “Alright Harry, rule number one is: do not make me repeat myself. So if I for example say ‘come back later, now is not the right time’ what do you respond with?”

 

“I say, I will come back later?” Harry answered not sure of himself. He felt like he was at school again, being told off by his teacher for not doing his homework.

 

“Exactly!” Louis patted him on the shoulder and continued, “So according to rule number one, what are you supposed to do now?”

 

“I’m supposed to come back later when the movie is over?”

 

“That’s a good employee.” And with this he turned on his heels and went back to getting comfortable on the couch, leaving a dumbfounded Harry standing in the middle of the room

 

Going back to his office, Harry replayed the conversation he just had with the Prince in his mind. Harry was used to having to deal with royal families and their intrinsic condescension, but being told off like that was definitely a first for him. The more he thought about the scene, the angrier he got. The Prince didn’t have to speak to him like he was a child, If anything he was the child out of the two of them! Harry would be turning 28 soon, while the Prince wasn’t even 23. Bloody hell. The little conversation they had just had shown Harry, yet again, how much work he had on his hands with this Prince. Because if he wasn’t even willing to have a 10 minute meeting with his adviser, what was Louis willing to do?

 

Once settled at his desk, Harry checked his personal phone and was happy to find two messages awaiting him. One was from his mother asking him to call her sometime later to catch up a little, and Harry quickly responded that he would definitely be calling her later in the evening. The other one was from his friend Liam, who he had met during one of his previous jobs in Russia. They  had immediately become good friends seeing as they were the only British men in the whole palace. Liam was asking him how it was going so far with his new assignment. Harry wanted to respond that he had better beginning of employment in the past, but that there was no reason to worry about him. He would have loved to tell Liam that he was sure, that he would get the hang of things quickly, but deep down Harry knew he would be lying. Before he could put too much thought into his response, his phone was vibrating, indicating that someone was calling him.

 

“Hello?” The caller ID was anonymous, but due to his job Harry had to change his personal phone number several times already, making him lose all his contacts more than once.  

 

“Harry? Hey, it’s Liam!” The person on the other side of the phone sounded jolly and from what Harry could hear, they were surrounded by people.

 

“Hey Liam! How are you, mate? I was just reading your text!”

 

“I’m fine, I’m fine, I’m having a beer at the local pub and I thought about you, my old friend Harry!”

 

“Oh cheers, mate! In which country are you at the moment?”

 

“Can’t say that, pal. Nowadays you don’t know who’s listening, you know. But how are you? How is it going? You know I always wanted to work for the Royal Family.”

 

“Well,” Harry paused, not knowing how to actually respond to the question, “I can’t say it’s easy.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“Let’s say that the Prince is not entirely cooperative for right now, though I hope he will be soon”

 

“You’re speaking in riddles right now. Is Louis giving you a hard time?”

 

“You want the truth? He is impossible! He outright refused to have a ten minute meeting with me just because he didn’t feel like having one, and then he had the audacity to lecture me like a five year old on how I shouldn’t make him repeat himself.”

 

“I see, but you know they are always difficult in the beginning for no particular reason, right? They’re like kids, they need to test the limits.”

 

“I know Li, I know. I don’t know why it should be any different with this one…”

 

“So the rumours are true, yeah? He’s a pain in the arse?”

 

“He sure is. Since I began, he hasn’t attended any of the official events he was supposed to go to. He either plays hide and seek with me or he’s just asleep. He always finds a way to avoid his obligations as a Prince. He is quite inventive, truth be told.”

 

“Alright mate, I gotta go but don’t let him get to you, alright? I’ve seen you tame the worst capricious princes and princesses, you can work your magic on our Prince too, I’m sure of it. I believe in you, H!”

 

They quickly bid their goodbyes before ending the conversation. Harry stayed  in his office for a bit longer, reviewing his notes from today’s meetings and giving more thought to his actual problem: Prince Louis Tomlinson.

 

Liam was right; in his five years of employment history, Harry had succeeded in taming the most problematic of royals. He had even had to resign from one of his previous jobs, because he was being too strong of an influence on the Prince he was working with back then and his entourage was not too adamant on letting a young adviser dictate their Prince like that.

 

So why was Harry failing miserably with this particular Prince?

 

Even if he would never admit it to anyone, Harry couldn’t say that he wasn’t affected by Louis’ charm. With all objectiveness, as a gay man, it was hard not to be salivating at the sight of Louis’ perfect features. Even before he had started working for him, Harry had already been well aware that the British Prince was handsome. Harry liked to remember a particular time when Louis had been on the front page of the Sun, half naked, wearing only high stockings and lingerie at what looked to be a Halloween party.

 

At least that’s what the official explanation said hours later after the pictures had been leaked. Whatever the reason had been, it had allowed Harry to see Louis’ sinful body in all it’s glory. His perfect curves, his round arse that gave him the most shameful thoughts, his strong thighs and soft chest. Louis was definitely Harry’s type. But it had always been a vague dream, a nice image to think of when he wanked; never had he imagined that he would be working for this man one day.

 

Later in the night when he was preparing himself for bed, he thought about the motivational little speech Liam had given him earlier and with a newfound determination to show Louis where his  boundaries were, Harry slid under the sheets.  

 

***

  


The day after, Harry woke up feeling refreshed and motivated to be the best adviser the castle had ever known. It was only 6:00 am, but Harry had already ran 5k on the treadmill in the royal gym, which he was free to use outside of his working hours. Once he was done, he took a quick shower and went back to his quarters, wearing a clean tee shirt and shorts.

 

Passing Prince Louis’ quarters on his way back, Harry was surprised to hear loud noises coming from the Prince’s bedroom. Not that Harry was being nosy, but he couldn’t stop himself from trying to listen in. It was far too early for the Prince to even be awake, which had Harry double checking his watch. It was indeed just past 6 am, which perplexed Harry. Suddenly, the door opened and two men stripped down to the waist appeared. They walked by Harry without saying a word and headed towards the stairs before Harry had time to react.

 

“Sirs? Excuse me?” he tried to call after them, but only received silence in response. He quickly ran after them and tapped one of them on the shoulder. “Sir? Were you with His Royal Highness Prince Louis?” That got the men to finally stop in their tracks and look at him.

 

“Yeah, why?” asked one of them.

 

“Right. I’m Harry Styles, I’m the new adviser of His Royal Highness,” he said, “may I ask you to follow me into my office please? If you were with the Prince I will need to make you sign some documents, to avoid any problems in the future.” He was giving them his loveliest smile, in order to not frighten the men. NDAs were definitely needed to be signed right now and Harry was not in the mood to call security this early in the morning.

 

“So you want to tell us, that you with your tiny shorts and your see through shirt, are the Prince’s adviser?” One of the men snickered. That had the other one laughing and continuing down the stairs.

 

“I’m not in my formal wear yet but- Sirs! I’m going to call security if you don’t cooperate!” Harry tried one more time, which worked miraculously.

 

Once in his office, he sat the two men down in front of his table.

 

“Well first of all, thank you for cooperating, that’s very kind of you. Nobody wants this to last forever so I’ll be quick. For whatever reason you were in the Prince’s room, it will need to stay within these walls.” He rummaged through his drawers to find the documents while explaining, “The Royal Family enjoys their privacy just like everyone else does, which is why I need you both to read this carefully and sign it.” He presented the men with two identical folders. “Do you have any questions?”

 

“Nah, let’s sign and get the fuck out of here.” one of them grumbled.

 

They quickly signed all the pages and got up to leave.

 

“Wait!” Harry scrambled after them, “Just one last question before I escort you to the exit. May I ask how you entered the Palace?”

 

The taller man who had done all the talking so far raised his eyebrows and responded cockily, “Ask your little Prince, he’s got all the answers.” And then he winked. He _fucking_ winked. That left no question for Harry as to what they both had been doing in the Prince’s bedroom this early in the morning.

 

Harry quickly called security to escort the two of them to the back exit and requested an urgent meeting with the head of the security department. How was it possible that those men were able to get into the palace, in the first place? This reminded Harry of his first encounter with the Prince. What had happened with those two? Had anyone made them sign NDAs? Back then, Harry had been way too flustered to think about that; something told him that the Prince’s careless demeanor extended to his bedroom adventures as well and the men were currently walking around, free to talk about their experience. This would not stand. That was the thing about Louis, he just seemed to care so little and Harry really needed him to take his responsibilities seriously. Louis had obligations to his nation and the people and he couldn’t just abandon these whenever he felt like it. These nightly encounters with strangers didn’t help with what was left of his once respectable reputation, either.

 

Harry went to his room quickly, to put his suit on, and then walked straight back to Louis’ bedroom. They definitely needed to talk.

 

“Your Highness? Are you there?” he knocked twice and waited. When there was no response, he decided to enter the room,  his gaze lowered to the ground, not ready to see the Prince in the nude again. Harry had had a difficult time forgetting the first time he had met the Prince, and the last thing he needed was a repetition of seeing his quite unforgettable body in its glory again.

 

“Your Highness? May I have 10 minutes of your time?”

 

“You know you can look at me, I won’t bite,” was the answer he received. Which was a good start, at least Louis was already awake. No need to go through the same process as yesterday morning, then.

 

“Your Highness.” Harry bowed his head low, then fixed his gaze on Louis. “I’m glad to see you’re awake.” Louis was still in bed, fumbling with his phone and seemingly not paying attention to Harry, at all. His hair was all over the place, which made him look a bit like a hedgehog. He was wearing a silky black robe, but it was partly undone, which allowed Harry to see his bare chest. Harry was actively trying not to stare. “I saw your… um, two friends leaving earlier.”

 

“They’re not my friends, they’re just some random guys.” Louis said, not moving his eyes from his phone. Harry took the opportunity to close the door behind him and walked towards the canopy bed.

 

“Well, regardless, I made them sign NDAs. Your Royal Highness should know that this is the standard procedure whenever strangers enter the castle.” That finally got Louis to throw his phone onto the covers  and look at  Harry.

 

“I do know that, Harry dear, but I don’t find it necessary to bother my one-night-stands with this kind of paperwork.” He sighed.

 

“Well, your Highness, I would still suggest you let me know when you are having your.. uh, special friends over, so I can make them follow the protocol beforehand.” Harry was walking on eggshells, he could feel the Prince getting angrier by the minute and yet he needed to not let his behaviour affect him. He would remain professional and say what he came here to say.

 

Suddenly, Louis climbed off the bed and approached Harry.

 

“Oh, so you want to be informed when my “special friends” are here?” He asked in a mocking tone, using his fingers to make air quotes. “Why is that, Harry? Do you want to join us?”

 

“What? No! Your Highness, that’s not-” The Prince raised his finger to Harry’s lips in a shushing gesture.

 

“It was a rhetorical question, my dear. You like what you see, don’t you?” After a second, Louis abruptly turned around and strutted back towards his bed, letting his robe slip a bit and reveal one of his bare shoulders. “You like men, Harry, don’t you? I knew the moment I saw you gaping at me and my special friends, on your first day.” he said casually. The air behind Louis shifted and Harry could smell the sweet perfume on his skin. This was all too much for Harry, suddenly. “Got nothing to say to that?”

 

Harry tried to open his mouth and say something, anything, but he was so flustered that the only sound that escaped his lips was some sort of a deep groan that he tried very hard to mask with a cough.

 

“Your Highness, I think we should postpone this. I forgot that I have an urgent meeting scheduled with the Head of Security in 10 minutes.” He quickly said looking at his watch. He needed to leave this room and he needed to do so now.

 

“Yes, I think we should do so too, my dear. But I suggest you take care of that,” Louis threw a very pointed look at Harry’s crotch, “before you give the Head of Security the wrong impression.”

 

That was the last straw for Harry. He quickly excused himself and left Louis’ bedroom as quickly as he could. _Fuck_. He couldn’t believe that he had just miserably failed and popped a boner in front of the Prince of England. Harry was horrified by his own treacherous body reactions. Never in the 5 years of his career had he lost his control like that. This Prince would be the death of him. And getting aroused? What in the world! Yes, Harry had established that he was most definitely attracted to Louis, but that was beyond the point. Harry was a hardworking man who didn’t do one night stands, nor did he have the time for a relationship, so maybe all of this could simply be explained by the lack of activity in this department.

Whatever it was, it couldn’t happen again. That’s what he tried to tell himself since day one. This job was proving to be the most challenging he ever had had to do.

 

After the embarrassing encounter with the Prince, the day passed in a blur. Harry found himself stuck in his office reviewing the notes he had taken during the various meetings he had throughout the day. He was still wondering how to handle all the strangers that seemed to have free access to the Palace. Earlier the Head of Security had said that there was nothing they could do if the Prince himself helped them get in. Harry had asked to at least be informed when they saw strangers coming in, as he doubted he could trust Louis on properly dealing with security matters.

After this, he also had a meeting with the Communications and Marketing Team. They explained that in the past months they had stopped any production of merchandise with the Prince, due to his damaged reputation. They were, however, totally on board with Harry’s plan of rehabilitating the Prince’s image; if only the Prince himself cooperated. There was no doubt Louis would veto any and every event, that Harry would try and organise in order to restore the prestige that once surrounded the Prince’s name. The meeting had ended with the Head of the Communication Team wishing Harry luck. The efforts would certainly have to be considerable, but Harry believed with time the general public would be happy to forgive the Prince.

 

The loud ringtone of his phone startled Harry from his thoughts and he braced himself when he saw the number of the Security flashing across the screen.

 

“Harry Styles.”

 

“Evening Sir, I apologise for bothering you this late. It seems we have a problem, Sir.”

 

“What’s going on?” Harry asked with an undertone of annoyance in his voice. Working for the Prince was never exactly relaxing, but it was past 10pm by now and to say Harry wasn’t exactly thrilled about the prospect of having to solve yet another crisis the Prince had caused, would be an understatement.

 

“We’ve just received note from a paparazzo. It seems that the Prince is at a party tonight,” the man on the line said, and after an awkward pause he hesitantly added, “a special party, Sir, apparently it’s a Libertine event.”

 

“Oh no,.” Harry breathed out. This couldn’t be happening. And if the paparazzi is already there, Harry’s already late. “Alright, thanks for letting me know. Could you organize a car for me, please?”

 

“Yes Sir, 5 minutes at the East exit.”

 

“Thanks, I’ll be there.” On that note he hung up, quickly threw a coat on and left his office.

  
  


***

  


The first impression Harry got when he entered the place was that everything was dark, as if the debauchery could only express itself in dim light. He had no clue how he was meant to find the Prince when he could barely see the ceiling or his own feet. It was with squinted eyes that Harry  searched the open-plan room, hoping he’d spot Louis as he would rather like to pass on the particular adventure of wandering into the closed ones. The place was filled with men and women alike, in various states of undress, having sex on every possible surface. Hopefully, the Prince would be somewhere close, so that Harry could get out of this place sooner rather than later.

Harry did actually find him, several minutes later, seated on a big burgundy couch, looking the definition of relaxed. He was surrounded by a woman only wearing nipple tassels and black lace panties, nibbling at Louis’ earlobe; on his other side there was a fully naked and heavily tattooed man working on Louis’ throat. Harry couldn’t help but feel a pang of jealousy (or was it possessiveness?) stir in his stomach. Driven by these feelings, Harry reached Louis in two long strides, clearing his throat loudly.

 

“Your Highness!”

 

When Louis didn’t react, he reached over and grabbed the woman by the shoulders. “Thank you, darling, I'll take over from here." He said, tone less kind than he had intended. He wasn't sure where the irritation was coming from, but the image in front of him didn't sit well in his stomach.

 

To Harry’s surprise, the girl just looked at him, shrugged her shoulders and left the couch. _Great, that’s one down,_ Harry thought. He turned towards the naked man, but was interrupted by a very annoyed looking Louis.

 

“What are you doing here? I didn’t take you for the type of person to enjoy libertine parties.”

 

“Good evening Your Highness, I’m not here for my own pleasure, I’m here to make sure you leave this event soon and with no fuss. The paparazzi are already waiting for you at the main exit.”

 

Unfortunately for Harry though, Louis seemed to be delighted over the fact that word about his whereabouts had got out.

 

“Why don’t you enjoy living a little, Harry? You’re all tensed up all the time. Did you know that stress isn’t good for you? You wouldn’t want your pretty face to get wrinkles so early, would you?” Louis smirked and winked at him. That was the last straw and Harry saw red; he grabbed Louis’ elbow, roughly pulling him off the couch.  

 

“I’ve had enough of your spoilt behaviour. You will do as I say, and I say we are leaving now! Do you understand Your Highness?” If Harry was later asked what had gotten into him in that moment, he would probably say that Louis had crossed his boundaries one too many times. Though, seeing as Louis remained speechless for now, Harry simply tightened his grip on Louis’s arm and proceeded to drag him towards the back exit. His carelessness and childish behaviour may have worked when he was a teenager, but he was 22 for God’s sake and the Prince of England at that. Harry couldn’t believe that Louis had gone out yet again, without a bodyguard there to protect him.

 

Once they were safely seated inside the car and Louis still hadn’t said a word, Harry began to feel more and more self conscious about his outburst.

 

“Your Royal Highness, I would like to apologise for my behaviour and emphasise that if any picture leaks from tonight or if any participant speaks about it, it could tarnish your image even further, which in all honesty is the opposite of what we need right now.”

 

“What makes you think I give a fuck about my image?” Louis interrupted him, suddenly back to his sassy self. “If it wasn’t clear enough before, I’ll spell it out for you: I don’t care, Harry.” He continued stressing each word as if Harry were a little child. “Also, I’m the fucking Prince of England and if I want to go to a party, fuck men, be in a threesome in front of people, I’ll do it! Whether you agree with my choices or not, I don’t fucking care.”

 

Once he had finished his speech he turned his head to face the window, crossing his arms over his chest. And that just wouldn’t do for Harry.

 

“Louis, look at me.” Harry knew that he was walking on thin ice, but he needed the Prince to listen to him for once. He tried for a more casual approach, speaking like he would to anyone.

 

“You’re not allowed to call me by my first name. I thought you wanted to be a good, arse-kissing employee. Looks like you’re failing miserably.” Louis was still facing the window and Harry could hear the sarcasm dripping from his voice. In a swift movement, he grabbed Louis by his shoulder and turned him around to face him.

 

“I know I’m not allowed to speak to you like that, but I think you’re fed up of being treated like a royal. Louis,” he paused and tried to catch Louis’ gaze, “please look at me, I’m not here to be your enemy. I’m here to help you face this scary world. I’m here to support you.”

 

“That’s...” Louis mumbled, “you’re trying to play with me, aren’t you?” He was still sitting in a defensive pose, with his arms crossed and his head lowered. Harry thought he looked so much younger and unarmed like that. In moments like this it became very clear that the outbursts and sassy comments were just a facade, and deep down Louis was just a normal 22-year-old man with too many responsibilities.

 

“I’m not playing any games, Louis,” Harry hesitated, “May I call you that? Louis?”

 

“Whatever.” Louis muttered. Harry took his response as a yes.

 

“Okay, Louis. Like I said, I am here to help you. Would you like that, me helping you?”

 

The car finally stopped; they had arrived at the Palace and Louis hopped out of the car muttering “I don’t need your help.” under his breath before he bolted in the direction of his wing.

 

Harry wanted to bang his head against the wall out of frustration. He was so close to getting Louis to... to what? He had no idea. The only thing they had kind of agreed on was that he now was allowed to call the Prince, Louis, which wasn’t all that helpful, in the end. Harry was sure that he just needed to form a connection with Louis in order to understand the change in his behaviour, but it was easier said than done. Hopefully they would be able to really work together eventually, without the Prince running off whenever he felt like it. Harry was growing tired of keeping up, and he wished the Prince would take it easy for at least a day.

 

***

 

His prayers were answered; in the days that followed their conversation, the Prince seemed to keep a low profile. He woke up on time, was present in at least 70% of his scheduled meetings and as far as Harry was concerned, stayed away from having a busy night life. There was still an invisible barrier between them, though. The Prince might have been less rebellious, but he was yet to actually open up to Harry.

 

Right now, Harry was walking through Louis’ wing of the castle to go and meet with the Palace’s event planner he needed to talk with him about all the events that would be happening next month, when muffled noises made him stop in his tracks. Harry couldn’t help himself and backtracked to look for the origin of the sound. They seemed to come from Louis’ living room and overtaken with curiosity, Harry stuck his head through the half-closed door. The scene in front of his eyes made him smile. There was Louis all smiles, surrounded by his sisters Princess Charlotte and Princess Félicité, with their respective golden retriever lying close by. They were all gathered on a huge rug in front of the fireplace and it seemed like Louis was getting a makeover from the girls. His fringe was in a tiny plait and his nails were being painted a dark shade of pink. He kept trying to distract them by poking their sides which made them laugh. Harry could only see on the Prince’s face adoration and playfulness.

 

The scene made Harry’s heart flutter from how cute it was. Slowing peeling himself away from this little glimpse into Louis’ real self, Harry proceeded towards the event planner’s office. Harry thought that maybe the Prince just needed to show more of this version of himself to the public. In the company of his sisters, he seemed calm, patient, smiling, and like he would never snap. He had also seemed oddly at ease with himself. Harry definitely needed to ask the Prince if maybe he would be interested in doing charity events with children in the future.

 

Later on, back at his office, Harry found himself swamped with work once again, when a knock on his door interrupted him.

 

“Come in.” He shouted from his chair, eyes glued to his computer screen. The door opened and one of the Master of the Household’s Assistants let himself in.

 

“Mr Styles, I apologise for bothering you, we need your assistance. It’s about His Royal Highness, Prince Louis.” That had Harry snapping his head up quicker than his tired neck would have liked. As much as he wanted to believe this was simply a social call, he had got used to assuming anything and everything related to Louis was a scandalous matter.

 

“What’s going on?” He was already putting his computer to sleep and getting up from his desk chair.

 

“I think you should see for yourself, Sir. If you would please follow me, I’ll show you the way.” That alerted Harry even more. He quickly turned off the lights and followed the man out of his office.

 

After walking through several hallways and climbing a pair of stairs, they arrived at one of the several ballrooms of the Palace. Dance music could be heard coming from inside before they even reached the doors and Harry already feared the worst.

 

“Please see for yourself, Sir. It seems that his Royal Highness has organised an impromptu party.”

 

It was with one last worried look to the assistant that Harry opened the double doors in front of him to discover that a party was indeed going on and it was going strong.

Just how the Prince was able to have gathered that many people in so little time without anyone noticing was beyond Harry. The beautiful ballroom was getting trashed by the minute, hundreds of intoxicated people dancing, sloshing liquid from their overfilled royal glassware on the luxurious Persian rugs and by the looks of it, Harry was sure that some people weren’t far from vomiting right on the spot. He could see a couple snorting coke off the expensive piano and someone spraying champagne on the rug and people surrounding it. If the King became aware of this, Harry could kiss his job goodbye for good.

He quickly called the Head of Security for back up and then decided to attempt to find Louis. The Prince had to be somewhere, certainly very proud of himself. He spotted him after several minutes of searching through the crowd, dancing and grinding his arse against a clearly interested man, uncaring of the mess he’d just created.

 

Harry promptly shoved himself through the people into Louis’ line of view.

 

“Your Highness, you need to follow me, right now. This unauthorised party is being shut down.” He stated firmly reaching the Prince who seemed unfazed and continued to rub his arse again the man, who, judging by his facial expression, was having a blast. Louis, however, kept his gaze on Harry and while he remained silent, his actions spoke for him.

 

Whatever this new game was, Harry was not playing it. In a swift motion, he grabbed Louis, who went easily, and dragged him to the closest doors. When Louis realised what Harry was doing, he suddenly removed himself from Harry’s grip.

 

“What are you doing? I’m having fun here!” At this point Harry had forgot all about the protocol.

 

“Is this a fucking game to you? Because I’m not playing it, so you better follow me right now and don’t you dare make me repeat myself.”

 

Louis remained silent with angry eyes fixed on Harry’s face. Luckily though he slowly nodded his head in approval. When they were finally out of the ballroom, leaving it to the jsecurity, Harry let go of Louis.

 

“What the fuck, Louis!” Harry exploded, not leaving the Prince any time to speak for himself first, “Why did you organise this party in the middle of the night, in the middle of the goddamn Palace? Are you bloody insane? Do you ever stop and think about the consequences of your actions?” Harry was now cornering Louis against the wall in the hallway and Louis seemed so small under his overpowering gaze. He could really feel their height difference now. “Louis, this can’t continue. You have to stop being difficult like that and pulling stunts all the time!”

 

Louis only lowered his gaze and remained silent, which was a stark contrast to his usual, vibrant personality. Harry was also slowly coming back to his senses and realised that he had way overstepped the lines by speaking to the Prince of England like that. Slowly, he moved back and straightened his clothes nervously.

 

“Your Royal Highness, I am so sorry for my behaviour, I-” He didn’t get to finish his sentence as the Prince was already striding away, yet again. _Great_. If now wasn’t the time to pack his bags and leave the Palace, then it would sure come tomorrow morning.

 

The Prince was most likely with his Father already, reporting on Harry’s inappropriate behaviour. The thought didn’t sit well in his stomach and Harry went to bed feeling unease build inside him.

  


***

 

Harry woke up feeling tired, as if he hadn’t slept at all. The memories from last night came rushing back to his mind and he felt like crawling back into bed and trying to forget all about it. Unfortunately, he still had a job to do, at least for now. He quickly went through his morning routine and was ready to go and have breakfast with the other members of staff in under 15 minutes.

 

On his walk towards the staff dining room, he briefly checked Louis’ wing of the castle to see if anything was out of the ordinary. As he didn’t want to disturb the Prince he settled for pressing his ear against the door to hear if anything was wrong. Satisfied to be met with silence, he continued his walk to the dining room.

 

His morning was unusual, to say the least. There were no phone calls to warn him that the Prince had got himself into yet another inappropriate situation and surprisingly there were no calls from the King to reprimand him about his behaviour, either. Nonetheless, Harry felt stressed as the hours passed by. Three days ago, he had scheduled a one-on-one meeting with the Prince for today and to say that Harry was anxious about seeing the Prince for the first time since last night was an understatement.

 

Time did fly by, though, and in no time Harry found himself walking towards the Prince’s office.  When he arrived at the front of the door, he could feel that his hands were clammy. After two deep breaths he knocked on the door to announce his presence and entered the room.

 

“Your Royal Highness,” he began while bowing toward the Prince, “we have a scheduled meeting in 5 minutes.” When he lifted his head again, he could see that the Prince was lounging in his desk chair and fumbling with his phone. _Nice,_ _I clearly have your full attention_ , Harry thought, but continued talking. “May I sit? I have some topics I would like to discuss with you and-”

 

“Just sit, Harry, and get this over with, I don’t have all afternoon.” The Prince didn’t even lift his eyes, which were still glued to his phone, and Harry felt a range of defeated feelings at being faced with the same cold, uninterested Prince he had met the first week working in the Palace. Not that Louis had become interested in his royal responsibilities over the last days, but at least since the Libertine party he had stopped being impolite. Harry sat and tried to not let Louis’ attitude deter him. He was happy to introduce some new ideas on how to regain the Prince’s prestigious image, and his reluctance was not going to stop Harry from doing his job.

 

“I would like to talk to you about children's charities today. I believe in order to regain some love from the People of England, you should consider taking part in some children’s charity events.” While speaking Harry tried to catch Louis’ gaze, but not once did he look at anything else than his fingers tapping on his phone screen. Harry persisted and proceeded to explain his idea further. “I believe you could, for example, organise a ball with a charity of your choice. I have, of course, preselected some already and would be happy to go over them with you if you’re interested.” Still no sign that Louis was even listening to him, so Harry put some leaflets of the mentioned charities in front of him. “If you would like to have a look. These are some that I have found interesting, feel free to let me know if you have others in mind or would like to see more-”

 

“Is that it for today?” Louis interrupted him, still not bothering to look Harry in the eyes.

 

“Oh- I- I mean yes, that was what I had planned to talk about today but I still haven’t heard your opinion about it all…”

 

That finally got the Prince to react. He got up from his chair, pocketed his phone and only said two words to Harry before he left his office.

 

“It’s rubbish.”

 

Harry was left speechless in this big and impersonal office, wondering how the hell he was going to get Louis to cooperate with anything. So far it had only been constant refusals and inappropriate behaviour. Harry was still on his probation period and he was sure that this job was the most difficult he had to do so far. In times like this, he remembered what Liam had said about boundaries. Princes were like kids who needed boundaries; once they knew where the limits were, they would cooperate. This clearly didn’t seem to work for this particular Prince. Harry had had two outbursts so far, but Louis remained the same. Harry desperately needed to find another approach. He had to find the reasons for Louis’ change of behavior in order to help the Crown bring back their bright Prince.

 

First, though, he needed to find some clues and who better than the staff to help him with that. After all, they were the closest people to the Prince after his family.

 

During his search for clues, Harry got many weird looks and silent stares, but he also found cooperative people who were willing to discuss the Prince’s change of behaviour. Harry learnt that Louis’ behaviour had changed just after his 18th birthday. One of the maids recalled that the Prince had a long meeting with his Father about a week or so after his birthday and since then everything had gone south. His attitude and total indifference had increased with the months. Someone even said that it seemed like the more the King got annoyed, the more the Prince amped up his stunts.

 

Overall, they all said that he was still the same person when addressing them, he still liked the same food as a kid and it almost felt like there were two versions of the Prince. The one that everyone in the Palace had known and loved since birth and this new persona, this new image that he had created for the people the day he had started to be an adult. Maybe the Prince didn’t want to grow up and face all his responsibilities, which surely had felt even more real and heavier from the day he turned 18.

 

While thinking about everything he had learnt so far, Harry walked back to his office in order to gather his thoughts and get on with his day. He was pretty sure he still had some paperwork to fill out and maybe even some research to do regarding any future events the Prince could participate in.

 

Arriving at his desk, he immediately spotted a light envelope neatly disposed on his keyboard.  Usually nobody was allowed to enter his office even though he never locked the door as he knew that everybody in the Palace was trustworthy.

 

He picked up the envelope and was surprised to only find a flashdrive inside.

 

 _Who put this here?_ Harry thought, scanning the room quickly to see if he could find any clue as to who had been to his office, but as nothing was misplaced or missing, he sat down and wondered if it was wise to plug the flashdrive into his computer. For all he knew, there could be a virus on it, ready to shut down his computer or worse, steal all the information he had stored on it. Harry didn’t feel like checking with the Security, though, as that would also mean having to explain to them how the flashdrive had landed on his desk in the first place. Security would have to report back to the King at some point, and Harry found this job hard enough already. There was no need to add any more weight to his shoulders.

 

Weighing up the pros and the cons, Harry finally decided to give it a try and hope for the best.

 

He turned his computer on and plugged the flashdrive, waiting for the pop-up window. When it finally came up, it seemed like the only document on the USB was a 10-minute video.

This meant someone had taken the trouble to break into his office only to bring him a video? _Must be related to the Prince_ , Harry thought before pressing the play button.

 

The video began and Harry had to squint his eyes at first to see anything. It seemed to be set in a bedroom, or at least it looked like there were people on a bed. After a few seconds, he realised that the people on the bed were in fact three men having sex. Harry could distinguish one of them, his broad and muscular back was facing the camera, he was butt naked and had his cock buried in the man on all fours in front of him. Harry was about to close the video, when the third man, whom Harry still hadn’t spared a glare, moaned dramatically. He was sitting up against the headboard with his legs spread open wide enough to give the man on all fours enough space to suck his cock. He was petting the man's hair or using it to push his head up and down. Harry couldn’t see it clearly, but the man sitting against the headboard didn’t seem to enjoy himself that much. His bored expression reminded Harry of Louis, and wait...

 

Harry had to pause the video to try and determine if what he had just thought was really true. It hit him like a ton of bricks. Of course this sextape would be of the Prince! Everything added up now. The envelope on his keyboard, someone taking the trouble of breaking into his office, that nothing had been taken.

Of course this would be related to Louis. Harry suddenly wanted to throw up. He had only watched about two minutes of the video and that had already been too much. He had to make absolutely sure that the man in the video was indeed the Prince before he alerted anyone. He had to watch a little more. With a mix of anger and protectiveness welling up inside him, Harry pressed the Play button once again. The men on the screen were still at it and Harry couldn’t help, but make a face. He tried to focus his eyes on Louis and find any confirmation that it was indeed him. It looked like he had longer hair in the video and Harry remembered that the Prince had grown his hair out, at some point, certainly to annoy his Father back then. Maybe the video wasn’t up to date then and hopefully this was a juvenile mistake. Harry prayed Louis hadn’t made a sextape while Harry was his Adviser. One or two minutes later, Harry was certain that it was, in fact, the Prince having a threesome. Deep inside Harry couldn’t control the pang of jealousy he felt in his stomach. This boy on the bed was his. Those men, whoever they were, had no right to have sex with him, touch him, smell him, see his face when he was about to come, see his hair slightly dampened by the sweat and feel his skin getting hot beneath their hands.

 

Harry slammed the laptop shut. He quickly got up and started to pace in front of his desk. He desperately needed to breath. This was all because of his acute sexual inactiveness right now, it was just hormones, he told himself again and again. He took several deep breaths and unclenched his fists, putting his hands flat on his desk, letting his head hang low. He wanted to shout out his frustration so badly. He really needed to calm down. This was all so ridiculous Harry couldn’t believe that he was getting bothered about Louis being sucked off by a stranger. Louis was anything but flirting with him; in fact, he was the wrong kind of pain in the arse 99% of the time. Was Harry into troublemakers now? Or was it the embarrassing teenage crush, he had once had on the Crown Prince of England coming back at full force now? Whatever it was, Harry needed to get control over it. Speaking of control, Harry also needed to do everything in his power to avoid a new scandal. This video, whoever it had been filmed by, had to be destroyed. Nobody could see it.

 

Harry gathered himself then and took his phone out to alert the Head of Security. They needed to take action, now.

 

***

 

Later in the day, when Harry was finally done with the Security Department, he decided to go and have another talk with the Prince. While he wasn’t in possession of the flashdrive anymore as  Security had destroyed it, he hoped that Louis would still believe him when he would tell him that he just saw him having sex with two strangers. Talk about awkward. This job definitely topped anything he had had to endure as part of his job before.

 

The Prince was difficult to find as he wasn’t hiding out in his wing, but was outside for once, in the Royal Garden. Harry found him on a bench, near the North exit, smoking a cigarette while watching something on his phone.

 

“Your Royal Highness.” he said, to announce his presence, which startled the Prince.

 

“The fuck is wrong with you? Are you following me now?” Louis locked his phone and started to get up, but Harry was quicker. “Please, Your Highness, may I sit with you for a moment? I have an urgent matter to discuss with you,” he said while sitting down and looking at Louis with a hopeful expression on his face.

 

“Why is it always an urgent matter to discuss with you?” Louis huffed out, but sat back nonetheless.

 

“Your Highness, I have to talk to you about something really delicate and please excuse my words in advance, but,” he hesitated to find the words and chose to be direct, “earlier in the day I was in possession of your sextape.”

 

Harry let that sink in for a moment, but seeing as Louis wasn’t reacting he continued.

 

“I want Your Highness to know that I have done everything in my power to avoid a scandal or a leak on the Internet, however, I received this video anonymously and who knows who else besides me has watched it, or who else has a copy of the video.”

 

The Prince was still looking straight in front of him, leaving Harry to face his profile. He seemed, as usual, unbothered by everything that Harry had just said and Harry was getting really upset about this behaviour.

 

“Your Highness, are you listening to me?” Louis finally turned his head to face him and Harry was surprised to see him smirking.

 

“Why aren’t you calling me by my name, Harry?” He asked to Harry’s surprise. _What is happening right now?_ Harry thought. He had stressed himself so much over the idea of having this talk with Louis and the first words that came out of his mouth were why hadn’t he called him Louis?

 

“I just,” he stuttered, “I’m following the protocol, Your Highness.”

 

“I see. So grabbing my arm, cornering me against a wall, calling me Louis or lecturing me like a 5 year old, that’s what you call following the protocol, love?” Louis was looking into his eyes for once, a smug smile plastered on his face and Harry felt cornered.

 

“I just- I would like to apologise again-” he was once again interrupted by Louis, who shifted closer to him on the bench.

 

“You know what I think Harry? I think you like being in control and you have a hard time controlling yourself around me because I don’t listen to every word you say, am I right?” His fingers went to put his fringe in place and Harry followed the movement with his eyes as if he were mesmerised. “Why so quiet suddenly?”

 

“I am not quiet, Your Highness.” Harry got up from the bench and tried his best to regain his composure.

 

“Did you like the video, Harry?” Louis was now standing next to him, so close that Harry could see the freckles on his nose and the ripe pinkness of his lips. Harry wanted to touch him so bad, his skin looked so soft and his lips seemed so kissable.

 

“I didn’t.” Harry himself was surprised by his sudden honesty in front of the Prince, but since he had started, he needed to finish. “And I’m sure you didn’t enjoy it either, did you? You seemed bored, to be honest.”

 

Louis seemed dazzled by Harry’s truthful response, but also like he was trying to not let it show on his face. “Bored? I think you should watch the video one more time, love. I was far from bored with two men to entertain me.”

 

“You didn’t look very satisfied to me,” Harry whispered near his ear, “you think you need two men to have a good time, when I know that you only need the right person.” Louis shivered at that and stepped back, feigning nonchalance at their exchange. “Anyway, Your Highness, I just wanted to make sure to let you know that we are trying everything in our power to not have this video leaked on the Internet,” he finished with the most professional tone he could muster. “I will leave you to your phone now.”

 

And just like that, he walked back towards the Palace. If the Prince wanted to play, Harry was game. Whatever tension was between them, Harry was now sure he wasn’t the only one feeling it. Of course guilt was tightening his chest a little but the arousal was stronger. And the more days passed the more Harry was convinced that Louis needed someone to challenge him. With the information he had gathered thanks to the staff, the puzzle seemed to be whole now: Louis had a problem with being the future King and he was purposely messing up his future. The scandals were just a way to create a distraction.

 

Now that Harry was almost sure what was going on with the Prince he needed a plan. He needed to be faster than Louis as well, to avoid any new scandals. Louis certainly wasn’t too happy about how their last conversation had gone and if Harry knew anything about him, his next move wasn’t too far off in the future.

 

But how to proceed? He couldn’t go and talk to Louis, and force a confrontation. But how could he explain to Louis that all his fears were legitimate and that Harry and all the staff were there to support him? Harry wasn’t able to find a solution in the three hours he remained in his office. Tonight though, a ceremony would take place in the Palace and Harry needed to have the Prince ready for that.

 

He was on the phone with the hair and makeup team while climbing the stairs towards the Prince’s wing; by now hair and makeup would be working on the Prince like Harry had asked them to, but since Louis’ sisters’ make up was delayed, Louis remained make-upless and hairsprayless for now. _Great_ , Harry thought; now he would have to deal with the Prince on his own while waiting for them to arrive.

 

He knocked on the door promptly and waited the three seconds required before opening it.

 

“Your Highness,” he bowed his head slowly, giving the Prince time to become aware of his presence. “I’m here to let you know that the hair and makeup team will be a little late, but they’re on their way.” When he looked up, his eyes were met with Louis’ bum, and Harry had to stop himself from staring too hard or too obviously. The Prince was bent in half, apparently doing his shoelaces and the view was amazing. His round arse was nicely shaped in the trousers of his black haute couture tuxedo.

 

“You should stop staring, Harry dear.” Was what woke Harry up from his daydream and he tried not to blush, but failed completely.

 

“I can see that Your Highness is already dressed, the tuxedo fits you well.”

 

It was a poor attempt at covering up his staring and Louis obviously didn’t fall for it as he kept teasing him.

 

“Like what you see, darling?” He walked slowly towards Harry until he reached his personal space. Fluttering his lashes, he continued, “Do you want to know a secret?” He was so close to Harry’s ear now that he could feel his hot breath on his neck. This was all too much and not enough at the same time, and Harry felt himself getting hot. “I’m not wearing any underwear,” he whispered.

 

That was the final straw. Harry turned his head slightly and met Louis’ lips. They remained like that, ghosting their lips but neither daring enough to take the final step and kiss the other properly. A loud knock on the door was what suddenly brought Harry back to reality and made him step backwards.

 

The hair and makeup team entered and quickly began to take care of Louis who kept his gaze fixed on Harry. The tension in the room was obvious, but no one said a word about it, instead filling the room with mindless chatter. When the team had finished their work on Louis, the Prince looked absolutely perfect. His hair had been put into a quiff that made his cheekbones look even more prominent and it looked like he had a bit of mascara on which made his blue eyes an impossibly lovelier shade of blue, his lips looked just a tad pinker, as if he had been biting on them. Harry felt a warm feeling stir in his gut, his throat tight with how gorgeous Louis looked. The Prince knew he looked even more delicious than usually and whispered while walking by Harry, “Stop drooling,” with a wink before disappearing through the door.

 

Once left on his own in the bedroom, Harry sat down in the nearest chair, reconsidering all of his career choices. _What was happening to him?_ Were they flirting now? Clearly Louis felt and purposely added to the tension in the room. Honestly, Harry was so confused. Was it all just a game for Louis? Maybe he wanted to push Harry enough to get him to make a mistake and then order for his dismissal. Harry was lost and definitely needed to get laid, as his behaviour was getting out of hand. They had an employer-employee relationship and it had to remain that way. Harry had to stop falling for Louis’ game.

 

It was with a new kind of determination that he walked back to his office once again. He had work to do.

  


***

  


Two days passed without any major incidents and it was with a certain confidence in his step that Harry was walking towards State Room 15. Today, the Royal Family was meeting with the French Prime Minister and some members of the French Parliament. The King and his son were the ones greeting the guests, which was why Harry needed to be present as well. For once, when Harry went to check on Louis before the ceremonial, the Prince wasn’t slouching on his bed playing with his phone, but actually ready and calmly waiting in a chair for the guests to arrive.

 

After a brief hello, they were now both walking towards the State Room, Harry leading the way. Once they had arrived, they jumped right into the meeting and were introduced to the French delegation. Harry stepped back to stand near the door, following the required protocol. He had been politely invited to stay during the conversation, but he wasn’t actually allowed to actively participate in it.

 

After what felt like an hour for Harry’s feet, but was more like 20 minutes in reality, the meeting ended and once again, Harry stepped in for some courteous handshakes. Once the French delegation had completely left the room, the King expressed his desire for a quick meeting with his son and Harry.

 

“Mr Styles, please sit. I would like to discuss the last weeks with you and my son. I am afraid that since you arrived I haven’t had the time to properly chat with you, but I’m happy to say that I haven’t heard of any of my son’s scandals since we last spoke.’

 

Harry took a seat next to Louis and couldn’t help but glance at him quickly. He seemed bored out of his mind, gnawing at his nails and not even pretending to listen to his Father.

 

“Your Majesty, thank you very much for taking the time today to have a catch up. I would like to say that the Prince has been behaving well the last few days.” He started before hearing a snort coming from Louis’ mouth.

 

“Do you have something to add, Louis?” The King had apparently heard the Prince’s reaction and Harry felt slight fear creep up his spine. Why did he always have to sabotage himself? His self-destructive attitude needed to stop.

 

“I have nothing to add to this charade of a meeting. He isn’t my babysitter, for God's sake!”

 

“Louis! Language. I will not continue this meeting if you don't behave yourself.”

 

“You don’t need to continue, because I’m leaving. I don’t need to hear all this talk about my behaviour,” he spat, rising up from his chair and walking towards the door, “Oh and Harry,” he stopped in his track and faced both men once again, “please do tell my father how much you enjoyed my last video, you know the one where I was in such pleasant company.” With one last wink he sauntered out of the room.

 

Harry felt his face get redder and warmer by the minute as he turned to face the King.

 

“Do I even want to know what he was talking about?” Thankfully the King seemed too weary of Louis’ behaviour in general to ask for more details.

 

“No, Your Majesty, but I promise that everything is under control.”

 

“Good, that’s all I needed to hear.” He was slowly getting up while looking at his watch. “Mr Styles, it was a pleasure and please don’t let my son get his way with you, he can be really nice when he wants to. I hope you succeed in bringing back that boy. I miss him.”

 

Once the door shut behind the King, Harry exhaled a long breath and started to curse Louis internally. He felt so sorry for the King. His son had changed one day and now he had to deal with someone he could barely recognise. He got up and decided to chase after Louis right away to have a little chat about his sudden outburst. Once in front of Louis’ bedroom door, he knocked twice and entered the room without being prompted.

 

The first thing that Harry saw were the clothes on the floor, the expensive tuxedo scattered around the room, which made Harry frown.

 

“Your Royal Highness.” That were all the words that came out of his mouth before his eyes landed on Louis laying on his bed, touching himself. He was sat up against the headboard, completely naked, his legs open to allow his right hand enough room to pump his cock leisurely. His cock was a sight in itself, too, fully erect and sporting an angry red colour. Harry could feel himself blush as he kept staring at Louis, who didn’t seem bothered with the sudden audience. For a second or two, Harry thought about how easy it would be to just give in: cross the distance and be the one to jerk the Prince off.

 

It was with an exaggerated moan that Louis startled him out of his thoughts. “Like what you see, babe?”

 

Harry flushed bright red at having been caught and tried to defend himself, but nothing would come out of his mouth so he just gestured at the door awkwardly before bolting outside, slamming the door shut in the process.

 

 _What the fuck had just happened?_ Harry started to panic and picked up his pace to get to his office sooner. Once the office door was shut and locked, he slumped into his desk chair and buried his head in his hands. This was bad. This was really bad. He could feel his own erection tenting his boxers and unconsciously he reached down to palm himself. He was rock hard, which made him want to die a little bit.

 

If later asked about what had possessed him to wank to the image of Louis touching himself, he would probably deny the whole thing all together. But for now, it felt so good he couldn’t help himself. He hurriedly unbuttoned his trousers and put a hand into his boxers. God, he was already leaking. This boy would literally be the death of him. Harry took care of his erection quickly and came with Louis’ name on his lips.

  


***

 

The day after Harry found himself in the gym at 6 o’clock. He needed to clear his head and what better way to do it than running away from his thoughts on a treadmill. Once he was done with his 45-minute run, he left the gym and went to the changing rooms to take a shower and dress himself for the day ahead.

 

Harry was in the middle of his shower when he heard the clicking of a locker. Even though the gym was available for everyone, Harry couldn’t remember ever seeing anyone else in it, but then again he didn’t really pay attention to his surroundings when he worked out, so maybe he had missed them before. He turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist to go back to his own locker, only to be faced with a sleepy Louis.

 

“Louis?” He suddenly felt very self-conscious about his bare chest and tried to hold his dirty clothes in front of him to shield himself from Louis’ burning gaze.

 

“Harry, what a nice surprise.” Louis had one leg up on the bench and was in the middle of lacing his trainers. He was wearing a black tee which hugged his torso nicely and a pair of white shorts; Harry had to force himself not to whimper at the sight. He had never seen his muscular legs this close up and if Harry wasn’t misguided, his legs looked to be shaved.

 

“It’s not polite to stare, love, has nobody told you that before?” Harry had to physically shake his head to stop himself from staring, which was becoming a reoccurring event in Louis’ presence. As a result, some droplets of water fell from his hair to his shoulders and torso.

 

“I- Your Highness, I was not staring,” he bowed his head and continued, “I was simply surprised to see you at the gym and this early nonetheless.”

 

“Well, I do enjoy some exercise from time from time,” he was now coming closer to Harry who pressed his clothes closer to his chest, “especially when I have some pent up frustrations in my life. Do you feel frustrated sometimes, Harry?” He was now so close to him that Harry was sure he had forgot to breathe for a few seconds. “Anyway, I need to warm up, my personal trainer is here, and we wouldn’t want to leave him waiting, now would we?”

 

And just like that, he turned on his heels and left the room, showing off his perfectly round bum that was hugged so nicely by his shorts. Harry was screwed. He could feel his cock hardening under his towel and contemplated for a minute going straight back to the shower to take care of it. In the end, he decided to not give in and be stronger than his hormones. He quickly put his clothes on and left the changing rooms.

 

They met once again around lunchtime. Harry was reading some papers on his clipboard and walking slowly towards the staff dining room for a quick lunch, when hushed voices drew his attention. As he raised his head to see where the sounds were coming from, he was suddenly face to face with the Prince.

 

“Yeah, they can arrive at 11, I’ll be ready by then.” Louis was talking on the phone, a big smirk painted across his face. He made sure to stop right in front of Harry, but kept chatting with whoever was on the other side of the line. “I want them muscular, but not too much, you know what I like.”

 

 _Who was he talking to?_ Harry thought and opened his mouth to voice his concerns, but Louis was quicker and put his index finger in front of Harry's slightly opened mouth to shush him.

 

“Alright, I’ll be waiting, thanks again, bye now.” Louis finished his conversation and pocketed his phone. “Harry, it’s not polite to interrupt me, you know.” He was pouting and patting Harry’s cheek gently.

 

“Louis, enough with the condescension!” Harry ground out. All of the tension from the last few weeks had built up and he felt more pissed off by Louis' behaviour than ever before. Less in control of his actions that he would like to admit to, he gently but firmly shoved at Louis' shoulder until the Prince's back was up against the wall. “Were you calling for some men to come into the Palace tonight?”

 

“Why? Are you jealous? Or do you maybe want to join?” Louis smugly poked a finger at Harry's chest and Harry just lost it.

 

“Enough! I’m not playing.” The closer to the Prince he got, the darker Louis’ eyes were getting, his pupils dilating. “I told you before to talk with me when you decide to bring in guests. We can’t have strangers in the Palace like that.”

 

“Oh, so you _are_ jealous,” Louis smiled and went to pat his cheek once again, but Harry was quicker, and pinned his hands up above him by the wrists.

 

“I said, I’m not playing.”

 

“Who said I was playing a game? If anything, babe,” he held eye contact, breaking out and reaching down to ghost one of his hands over Harry’s crotch, making Harry groan, “we’re playing the same game, aren’t we, Harry?”

 

“Do you ever just shut up?” Harry groaned and tried to remove Louis’ hand from his crotch.

 

“Make me.”

 

Harry looked into his eyes, and when the only thing he saw was desire, he leaned in and kissed him. Louis’ lips were thin but so soft under his; he kissed him harder, filled with passion and wanting to feel closer to him and turned the kiss filthy. They fought for control for a while before Harry eventually won by gripping Louis’ bum through his trousers. He squeezed it gently, happy to feel both cheeks fill his palms perfectly. Louis let out a whine and went pliant at the touch.

 

“We shouldn’t...” Harry tried to voice his concerns, but Louis was quick to shut him up by biting and sucking at his bottom lip.

 

“Shut up and kiss me.” Not holding back anymore, Harry headily cupped Louis’ face in his hands and kissed him, swirling his tongue around Louis’ and grinding their hips together. He could hear Louis whimpering and felt the Prince’s fingers run through his hair.

 

Harry was the first one to detach himself and put some distance between them as if Louis was fire he needed to get away from.

 

“Louis, it’s really not a good idea...” he began, but Louis wasn’t apparently happy about being interrupted and closed the distance between them again to suck at Harry's neck.

 

“Just give in, babe, I know you want it just as much as I do.” He proceeded to lick and bite gently just below Harry’s ear and Harry went weak in the knees. Louis kept going, teasing his fingers across Harry’s thin waist. “Come and join me and my friends tonight, love, we can all have fun together.”

 

And just like that, he pecked Harry one more time on the lips and resumed his walk to wherever he had been headed to in the first place.  

  


***

 

Harry was pacing in his bedroom. The last words Louis had said were resonating in his mind and he couldn’t believe he was actually considering to go over to Louis’ room and try to make him change his mind about having men over tonight. It made him sick to his stomach to think about Louis with other men, now that he knew how his lips tasted, how he would go pliant at just the right touches to his body and how wonderfully he smelled. Just thinking about it now, Harry was getting hard.

 

After debating whether or not this was a smart idea for another few minutes, he decided to just go and check if everything was calm in Louis’ wing or if the guests Louis had invited were already there. While climbing the last flights of stairs he ruffled his hair and thought about how pathetic his jealousy made him act. When he arrived in front of the Prince's bedroom he hesitated for a few seconds before knocking.

 

"Your Highness?" He called through the door, but he couldn't hear a sound so he threw caution to the wind and opened it.

 

"Louis?" The room was dark and the only light came from the lamps on each nightstand. They gave the room a peaceful ambience. Harry cursed himself internally for disrupting the Prince as he was apparently preparing himself for a good night’s sleep. As his eyes, were now accustomed to the low light, he could see that Louis was under the sheets, lying on his belly, his torso slightly raised as he was scrolling aimlessly on his phone.

 

He seemed to still not have noticed Harry’s presence and Harry just couldn't help himself; he closed the door behind himself and took a step closer to the bed. Louis was wearing headphones, which explained why he hadn’t acknowledged Harry yet. He reached the bed with one more step and lightly  touched Louis' leg over the sheets. That finally got the Prince to turn his head slightly to his right, a smug smile plastered across his face.

 

"Finally," he turned his whole body towards Harry, removing his headphones, "I was waiting for you, love."

 

"I shouldn't be here," Harry started, but Louis was quicker and raised himself to his knees, the sheets falling and revealing his completely naked body.

 

"Hush this nonsense Harry, you came here, so stop acting like a scaredy cat."

 

“Who are you calling a scaredy cat?” Harry softly ran his fingers through Louis’ ruffled hair, tilting his head up by the chin, “You don’t know what you do to me, do you?” He didn’t let Louis respond and leaned in to kiss him ferociously. “If we do this, baby, we do it my way.”

 

Harry continued kissing Louis only breaking the kiss to remove his shirt. "Lay on the bed for me.”

 

“Hurry up Harry!” Louis was lazily stroking his half hard cock and watching Harry removed his shoes, trousers and boxers.

 

“Come here.” Harry climbed on the bed and kneeled at the end, his bum resting on his feet.

 

" _You_ come here," Louis said petulantly,watching Harry in awe.

 

"Louis," Harry started with a firm voice, caressing lightly Louis' right ankle, "come here."

 

Reluctantly Louis sat up and mimic Harry's sitting position, "What now?"

 

"Now, I reward you for being good and listening to me." Harry leaned forward, cupping Louis' cheek to kiss him. He ghosts over Louis' lips for a few seconds and when he could feel Louis was aching for the kiss he let their lips meet.

 

They kissed for a while, Harry's tongue massaging Louis', hands roaming over his back, tracing back and forth above the curve of his butt. When he finally felt Louis was getting impatient, he started to explore Louis’ body properly, first his neck, then his collarbone, taking his sweet time to kiss and mark the soft and flushed skin.

 

"Harry..." Louis' whine was what brought him back to reality and he slowly guided Louis to lie back down against the pillows.

 

"You're so beautiful," Harry exhaled while kissing Louis' torso. He was now hovering over Louis' petite body, one of his knee between Louis' tights. Under him, Louis was already flushed all the way from his neck up to his cheeks, inhaling sharply.

 

"Harry, please touch me." Louis was already impatient and Harry was not having it. They had time, they had all night long even and Louis needed to learn what patience meant and that you couldn’t  always get what you wanted right away.

 

"What do you want, babe?" He was now playing with Louis nipples' and the boy was shivering and biting back moans.

 

"Harry, stop teasing," Louis cried out.

 

"I'm going to suck you now, can I do that love?" Harry was kissing Louis' tummy and licking his happy trail, waiting for Louis’ approval.

 

"Yes please," Louis gasped and spread his legs wider.

 

“So pretty for me,” Harry hummed and dragged his tongue down to the base of Louis’ shaft. He could hear Louis whimpering under him so he decided to continue his teasing. He alternated between swirling his tongue around the tip and kissing Louis’ cock which had Louis crying out for more. Happy with his teasing, Harry finally took Louis’ cock in his mouth, first only the tip; then, he pressed his tongue flat along the underside of Louis’ cock and wrapped his hand around where his mouth couldn’t go.

 

“Oh god Harry!” Louis threw his head back on the pillow while Harry kept bobbing his head up and down. “Feels so good.”

 

Harry kept going at it, stroking vigorously and hollowing his cheeks around Louis’ shaft. When he finally felt like Louis was about to come, he let his other hand travel to Louis’ balls and massaged them.

 

“Harry, oh my god,” Louis was a mess and Harry felt proud of his work, “I’m going to come.” And just like that, Louis came under him. Harry’s eyes filled with wonder. He did that, he had made Louis come. While Louis was slowly coming back to reality Harry finally took his own cock in his hands and tugged at it several times. His groans from pleasure and sensitivity alike startled Louis from his postorgasmic state.

 

“Come on me please.” And that did it for Harry, who stroked his cock twice before coming on Louis’ torso.

  
  
  


***

 

The day after, Harry woke up feeling groggy and disoriented. He rubbed his eyes several times before climbing out of bed and going for a shower. The events of the previous night came back to his memory slowly while the water jet woke his sleepy body. He had had sex with the Prince of England. The realisation became even more real when he saw all the scratches Louis left on his back in the mirror above the bathroom sink.

 

Fuck.

 

Was it now finally time for Harry to resign? Certainly sleeping with his boss was not something he was supposed to do.

 

While he weighed the pros and the cons, he remembered how docile Louis had been when he had been pinned under him. How pliant he had gone and accepted to listen to Harry for once. Without being more authoritative than usual, Harry had finally had the final word with Louis, even if it was only in bed, it was stillsomething.

 

Once he was ready to start the day, Harry went into his office to check his and the Prince’s schedule. They actually had a meeting about the children’s charities scheduled this morning. Harry sighed one last time and walked towards Louis’ wing.

 

In less than five minutes, Harry found himself knocking on Louis’ office door, waiting to be invited in. When no one answered, he tried to hear if anyone was already inside and he was met by two voices. One definitely was Louis’ and the other one was a man but Harry couldn’t pinpoint who it belonged to.

 

Harry had no time to think about it too much because the door was opened roughly revealing the Prince.

 

“Your Highness?” Louis continued walking without acknowledging him and Harry tried his best to catch up.

 

“Harry, I have no time right now.” And with that he closed his bedroom door in Harry’s face.

 

 _Well that went well._ Harry wondered with whom Louis had been talking and what exactly had happened in his office. Louis had seemed really annoyed but once again, the Prince was annoyed on the regular.

 

Harry hesitated for a few seconds in front of the door. Trying to decide whether it was wise to insist  on having a chat with the Prince or let him cool down first. Louis was the one to decide that for him though, as he suddenly opened the door.

 

“What?” Louis still seemed rather pissed, but Harry knew that it was best to not take it personally and remain calm.

 

“We were supposed to have a meeting right now about the children’s charities and-”

 

“Harry, in which language do I need to tell you that I won’t attend any events with children. They really don’t need to be involved with me.” While talking the Prince went back inside of his room and was now checking his phone. Harry took that as invitation to enter the room and close the door behind him.

 

“Louis, look at me please.” Louis was still focused on his phone and refused to raise his gaze.

 

“Louis!” Harry used a more authoritative voice once again and Louis finally reacted.

 

“What, Harry? What do you want?” And something was wrong, Louis’ voice was too strangled and he still refused to meet Harry’s eyes. Harry stepped closer to him and gently cupped his chin to lift his face.

 

“What’s going on, love? What happened in your office?” Louis removed his face from Harry’s hand and walked towards the window.

 

“Leave me alone, Harry.” As little as Harry could see of Louis who had his back to him, Harry could have sworn that Louis was wiping away some tears right now. Whatever had happened in this office, Harry needed to be there for Louis now. He quickly closed the distance between them and circled his arms around Louis’ waist,  burrowing his face in the crook of Louis’ neck.

 

“Louis, baby, it’s alright, I’m here.” Now that he was closer to Louis he could tell that Louis was indeed silently crying. Harry had never seen the Prince emotional and he wasn’t so sure how to react.

 

“What happened in the office Lou, I can help you-”

 

“You really don’t understand, do you?” Louis removed himself from Harry’s grip and faced him, his eyes reddened from the tears. “You can’t help me! Nobody can help me! You’re going to leave one day and, and-” Louis was now full on crying and the sight broke Harry’s heart. He leaned in once again and tried to take Louis in his arms, but the boy struggled against him. “Leave me alone!”

 

“Louis, baby, it’s okay, I’m here to help you, just tell me what’s wrong.”

 

“You can’t help me, stop saying that!”

 

“Of course I can help you, you just have to trust me and share your problem with me.” Louis stopped struggling at that and hid his face in Harry’s chest, he was silently sobbing and Harry was heartbroken. “Louis, it’s ok, just tell me.” He kept caressing Louis’ back when finally Louis mumbled something.

 

“I’m so scared.”

 

“You’re scared of what?”

 

“The whole thing, I never wanted that, you know, I hate to be the one who is going to replace my Father one day.” Louis wasn’t hiding his face anymore and Harry reached in his trousers pocket to grab a tissue for him.

 

“I know babe, I figured.”

 

“You what?” Louis asked, surprised, removing himself from Harry’s arms.

 

“Well, I figured out that you had some issues with your future, seeing as you like to self sabotage yourself on a daily basis,” he started, but seeing as Louis started to get angry he tried to comfort him, “but it’s alright, you’re going to be the King of England, anyone in your place would be scared, love. I’m here for you, I’m only leaving if you ask me to do so, alright?”

 

“Nobody,” Louis started then hesitated, “nobody has stayed before.”

 

“Louis, look at me, I’m not leaving alright, I’m here to support you, advise you and be by your side as long as you need me to, that’s my job, yes, but that’s also what I want to do personally.” He paused and looked at Louis’ face for a sign that he was understanding what he was saying, “Now, would you like to talk about what happened in your office minutes ago? Who were you talking to, baby?”

 

“It’s silly, really,” Louis said all shy, “I was talking to my father. I asked..” Louis paused once again and Harry let him finish, he could feel that Louis was being serious and vulnerable. “I asked him if in the near future I could, you know, I could come out to the nation as gay.”

 

“You... what? Oh my god, that’s fantastic, love, what did he say?” Harry could already tell by Louis’ expression that the exchange with his Father hadn’t gone well, but he needed to remain optimistic for Louis’ sake.

 

“What do you think he said, Harry?” Louis snickered, “Of course he said no, he wants me to marry a woman at some point or remain single. I don’t have any other alternative.”

 

“Well, that’s where I come into play, love, let me talk to him? I can’t promise Iäll make him change his mind but I can show him how important this is for you.”

 

“You would do that?”

 

“Yes, of course, love, anything for you. But you’ll need to help me as well.”

 

“What do I need to do?”

 

“Well, how about a little change in your behaviour? I believe your father will be more keen on agreeing with me if I can promise him that his son will be attending his duties and respecting his schedule,” Harry smiled, “oh, and also that you won’t incite any other scandals, especially sexual scandals, if you understand what I mean.”

 

“Why that, Harry? You don’t feel like going to another Libertine Party?”

 

“Oh my god! Just shut up, you menace!” They were now tickle fighting and quickly Harry had Louis pinned to the wall next to the window. Their laughter died down and they were now facing each other, Harry was very tempted to just lean in and kiss Louis and judging by Louis’ dilated pupils, the boy was on the same page. “Can I kiss you?”

 

Louis only nodded and leaned in to meet Harry’s lips halfway. They kissed for a while, Louis abandoning control right from the start, there was no aggression in their kiss, only adoration and comfort.

 

“I should go and see if I can have a meeting with your Father.” Harry murmured, ending the kiss.

 

“Alright, let me know how it goes.”

  


***

 

“He said what now?”

 

Harry was back in Louis’ wing after having spoken with the King. As he had thought, the King had only been available for a talk with him late in the evening, and therefore Harry had spent all day trying to find arguments in order to convince the King.

 

The meeting had gone well seeing as Harry was asking the impossible. Not that Harry was defeatist, but he was realistically aware that outing the Prince would be a difficult task. After explaining his point of view and arguing that Louis was mainly being difficult because he was scared of his future as King, the King assured Harry that he would think about it. He mentioned that the Crown had never had a gay King but maybe Louis could be the first one. If he had his son back, that would maybe be a goal worth fighting for.

 

“He said he would think about it and that he was open to the idea of having the first gay Prince.” Harry smiled and caressed Louis’ cheek gently. They were both sitting on Louis’ couch in his bedroom and Louis was watching him in awe.

 

“You’re kidding, right? Is that some sort of payback for all the trouble that-”

 

“Louis, of course no!” Harry exclaimed, he had been trying to make Louis understand that his Father was open to him being outed, but a good 5 minutes later and Louis was still questioning the truth of his words. “It could happen, baby, if you are willing to work with me to restore your image. The King would be less afraid to follow through with us if the People were already loving you again.”

 

“This is just a dream, I’m going to wake up...” Louis was rubbing his eyes in disbelief and Harry couldn’t deal with how cute Louis looked like that.

 

“Love, come here.” He signaled for Louis to come closer and Louis scooted closer, one of his legs almost on top of Harry’s. “Are you willing to listen to me and stop with the scandals?” As Louis was nodding, he continued, “we could work with LGBT charities if you want, show the people that you feel concerned and that you are involved in this community.” Louis was now watching him with round eyes and Harry was sure the boy was ready to shed a tear. “Everyone needs to know and see that you are trustworthy again and that you are honest with them. No more lies and broken promises, okay?”

 

“Harry, oh my god, I can’t believe this could all be happening one day!” The Prince’s voice was full of emotion and Harry could not trust himself anymore, he was ready to cry from happiness as well.

 

“Thank you, Harry, for sticking around even though I have been nothing but awful to you!”

 

“Oh come on, you have been what? A little difficult, nothing I couldn’t handle!” Harry’s smirk said it all and they took each other in their arms. “It’s going to be ok, Louis, do you trust me?”

 

“I do, I’ll work with you and I try to listen to your advice, we can do this, right?” Louis whispered in Harry’s neck.

 

“We can do it.” Harry answered and it sounded like a promise.

 

***

 

5 years later

  


“I can’t do it!” Louis was pacing back and forth in front of the fireplace and gnawing at his nails.

 

“Of course you can babe, you worked so hard to get to this day.” Harry put his clipboard down on the desk and walked towards Louis. His boyfriend never stopped being dramatic unfortunately. “Today is _the_ day babe, today there’s no stress, only happiness.”

 

“Easy for you to say! I’m the one coming out! It’s me who everyone’s going to gossip about!” Louis snapped and carded his hand through his hair.

 

“Louis. look at me.” Harry closed the distance between them and took Louis’ hands in his. “From the first day I worked with you, have I ever failed you?” He waited to see Louis nod his head no to continue, “it’s going to be a memorable and amazing day today, can you believe me?”

 

They hugged for a minute before a knock on the door interrupted them. The Royal Event Planner entered the room and let them know that they were ready to begin. Harry squeezed Louis’ hand one last time and then let him go. They were about to have the interview they had been working towards for about five years now. After convincing the King that Louis could be the first British gay Prince, they had to work really hard to restore Louis’ image. Once that had been done, Louis had involved himself in different LGBT charities and had made sure to always voice his opinion when an event touched the LGBT community through the years. To be honest, today’s interview was only a formality, pretty much everyone knew by now what the Prince was about to reveal, but it’s still had to be done. They contacted the only journalists the Crown trusted for family interviews and they organised what questions the Prince would be asked. On his side, Louis rehearsed his responses.

 

Watching Louis sitting on a velvety red armchair, Harry couldn’t help but feel positively emotional. He remembered the first months working at Louis’ side, how difficult he had been and how many times Harry had wanted to just give up and resign. Now, Harry was happy to have stuck around, and watching Louis smile at him while responding to the interviewer, he felt even more in love.

  
  


The End

 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope that you liked it, leave a kudo and/or a comment?


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